![]() ‘a neo-Nazi activist with a secret career as a gay porn star’ Perhaps an alternative analysis might involve listening to more recent bands such as Hard Skin who continue ‘the Oi! music’ in ACAC and in this must-hear, sing-a-long appreciation of the police. After all, ‘the Oi! music’ contains a common range of issues with a strong working-class identity, issues including police violence, unemployment, dole, football, hooliganism, drinking, fighting, or whatever. Or, why not select from a range of other themes from ‘the Oi music’ thematic archive. Bushell, now somewhat shifted to the right of the political spectrum (see Viz‘s Garry Bushell the Bear), was then a socialist and so if we are going to insist on origins why not the first journalistic champion of ‘the Oi! music’? Or, if we are to stick with the myth of origins, why not turn to the band typically claimed to be one of the begetters of ‘the Oi! music’, Sham 69, whose lead singer, Jimmy Pursey, would go on to produce ‘the Oi! music’ records? Sham 69, who were directly confronted by far-right skinheads at gigs, were known for their likewise direct anti-fascist stance. The journalist most associated with ‘the Oi! music’ and who coined the term ‘Oi!’, Garry Bushell, has long tried to distance ‘the Oi! music’ from the far right, though recognising far-right elements, claiming that such involvement was a ‘hijacking’ and that no other genre has been so misunderstood. All of this, incidentally, could be said about punk more generally. If we assume for the moment the standard myth of origins, ‘the Oi! music’ emerged from punk in the late 1970s and contained number of left-wing, anarchic, and Marxist bands, participants and followers, as well associated ‘apolitical’ bands and, of course, far-right bands, participants and followers which sometimes means that the far right gets categorised in a different genre from the left, no doubt in part due to political embarrassment. ![]() Nevertheless, and to use another analogy, it might be like making statements such as ‘the hip-hop music was invented by misogynists’ or ‘the death metal music was invented by murderers and people who burn down churches’ or ‘the classical music is all about nationalism and anti-Semitism’, all of which would be excluding a great deal of alternative description. The association of ‘the Oi! music’ with far-right groups is not new and not entirely unjustified. ![]() I’m also wondering why liberals are suddenly so fond of a band that claims inspiration from the “Oi!” music invented by Far-Right British skinheads Jenkins ventures into the world of popular music with this aside: Most of the article attempts to show that a case could be made for Pussy Riot’s actions being a ‘grievous act of religious hate crime’ which is then contextualised in post-1917 Russian history. A couple of years ago Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University who has published extensively on the history of Christianity, including this book on earliest Christian texts, published an article (‘The New Soviet League of Militant Godless’) on Real Clear Religion (republished on ABC Religion and Ethics) which was critical of western support for Pussy Riot.
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